The invention relates to determining data latency in a communications network.
Two approaches for determining latency in networks are time series matching and data time stamping. In the time series matching approach, network level data of a data stream is stripped from the data stream and logged to a respective data log at points in the network. Stripping data from a level of the data stream may be intrusive since network level interpretation is required. The logs are uploaded to an analysis system which analyzes the logged network level data and determines latency.
In the data time stamping approach, a data stream is modified to include a time stamp synchronized to a common clock. This method is also intrusive and can delay distribution of the data stream. The time stamp is analyzed at different points in the network to determine latency.